The prestigious Dennis Eckersley Award, named after the former Vancouver and Toledo star pitcher who dominated in the early 1990s, is given to the most astounding Relief Pitcher in the DMBL. A series of points are given to score a reliever's Eckersley standings. Two points are awarded for each save and each victory earned in relief and one point is subtracted for each blown save and each loss.

And the award goes to....

Jason Isringhausen, Hoboken Cutters

Isringhausen won his first Eck award this year, with perhaps his best season in his career. Izzy was tied for the league lead in saves with 33 and was fifth in relief wins with 8. His 2.39 ERA was a career best. Izzy also allowed only 8.9 runners per 9 innings, struck out 88 in 98 innings of work and appeared in 71 games. Isringhausen first appeared in the DMBL in 1996 with the Columbia Crusaders as a starter. He pitched a disastrous full season in 96 and returned for only five more starts in 1997 with Phoenix. After a 5-18 record and around an 8.00 ERA, it looked like Izzy was out of baseball. That is until the Hawaii Volcanoes took a shot at him as a reliever. Izzy wasn't terrible and earned a spot with Hoboken the following season. It was the Cutters' inaugural season. Izzy recorded his first DMBL save in 2001 and became the full-time closer for the Cutters in 2002. He's amassed 115 saves in his DMBL career.

Izzy had some competition this year. Arkansas' Brad Lidge came in second after amassing 31 saves. In third place and tied for the league lead in saves was past Eck winner Billy Wagner of Vancouver. In fourth place was Joe Nathan of Columbia and in fifth was Philadelphia's Armando Benitez.

It wasn't an especially dominant season for relievers. Isringhausen's total places him ninth on the all-time list of best relief seasons, barely making the list. No one else from this year's finalists made the list.